Digital Equipment Corp may have its fans in despair at the way in which it is dissipating the assets and goodwill built up over two decades, but the benefit to its balance sheet of the everything must go mentality of the present management has not gone unnoticed at Standard & Poor’s Corp, which has raised its ratings on the company’s senior debt to double-B-plus from double-B-minus and preferred stock to double-B-minus from single-B. About $1,500m of debt, including preferred stock, is outstanding. The upgraded ratings lift the firm’s paper to the top of the junk bond heap, and into the very lowest rung of investment grade ratings.
